Toyota Tacoma 2004, Operating Manual

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’04 Tacoma U (L/O 0309)
43
2004 TACOMA from Sep. ’03 Prod. (OM35814U)
In response to a severe frontal impact,
the SRS airbags work together with the
seat belts to help reduce injury by inflat-
ing. The SRS airbags help reduce injuries
mainly to the driver’s or front passenger’s
head or chest caused by hitting the ve-
hicle interior.
When the passenger airbag manual on- off
switch is in the “ON” position, the front
passenger airbag is activated even with
no passenger in the front seat.
Always wear your seat belt properly.
Your vehicle is equipped with a crash
sensing and diagnostic module, which will
record the use of the seat belt restraint
system by the driver when the SRS air-
bags are inflated.
CAUTION
The SRS airbag system is designed
only as a supplement to the prima-
ry protection of the driver and front
passenger seat belt systems. The
driver and front passenger can be
killed or seriously injured by the
inflating airbags if they do not wear
the available seat belts properly.
During sudden braking just before
a collision, an unrestrained driver
or front passenger can move for-
ward into direct contact with or
close proximity to the airbag which
may then deploy during the colli-
sion. To ensure maximum protection
in an accident, the driver and all
passengers in the vehicle must
wear their seat belts properly. Wear-
ing a seat belt properly during an
accident reduces the chances of
death or serious injury or being
thrown out of the vehicle. For in-
structions and precautions concern-
ing the seat belt system, see “Seat
belts” in this Section.
Improperly seated and/or restrained
infants and children can be killed
or seriously injured by the deploy-
ing airbags. An infant or child who
is too small to use a seat belt
should be properly secured using a
child restraint system. As to Xtra-
cab models, Toyota strongly recom-
mends that all infants and children
be placed in the rear seat of the
vehicle and properly restrained. The
rear seat is the safest for infants
and children. For instructions con-
cerning the installation of a child
restraint system, see “Child re-
straint” in this Section.